Polokwane mayor to ‘lobby’ SAFA for Bafana Bafana matches
Polokwane Executive Mayor John Mpe has announced plans to engage with SAFA in an effort to secure more Bafana Bafana matches for the city, known as the “City of Stars.”
This comes after the Polokwane Municipality successfully managed to host Bafana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier encounter against Lesotho last Friday.
The game between Hugo Broos’ charges and Likuena was a sold-out affair. 43,000 tickets were made available for purchase. The New Peter Mokaba Stadium has a capacity of 45,500.
Bafana were able to use their home-ground advantage to secure a 2-0 win over the neighbours Lesotho, thanks to the second-half goals by Orlando Pirates star Relebohile Mofokeng and Mamelodi Sundowns’ Jayden Adams.
The victory saw South Africa climb up the Group C table to position one with 10 points, just two points ahead of second-placed Benin, whom they face on Tuesday, 25 March 2025 at 18:00 [SA time].
POLOKWANE EXECUTIVE MAYOR GUNNING FOR MORE BAFANA BAFANA GAMES
The executive mayor of Polokwane, Mpe, stressed their desire to establish the New Peter Mokaba Stadium as a favoured home and stronghold for Bafana. He said that the municipality has demonstrated its ability to host big matches of this magnitude.
“Well, we are hoping to lobby SAFA to bring more games. It cannot be that you have got countries like Kenya and Namibia bringing their home games to us [New Peter Mokaba Stadium],” said Mpe.
“So, Peter Mokaba Stadium must always be a preferred venue for Bafana Bafana because of the response from the crowd and motivating the guys to go all out and win it for all South Africans.
“We will continue to lobby for the Bafana games and for the cup finals to eventually come to Polokwane, as well as more and more international matches.”
Mpe continued: “So far, we have demonstrated our abilities to keep our facilities at the highest level of readiness for any event of any kind.”
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